Some Skepticism About The Boston Bombings Press

by Richard Kostelanetz (August 2013)

Another problem is that in the age of Twitter and other unedited communications channels of private and narrow casting, the broadcast media are impelled to beat them, which is, of course, impossible by any channel that filters information though a hierarchy. When a colleague now in his mid-thirties first heard the news of the Boston bombing over the radio, he told everyone within earshot to open Twitter, on the assumption that it would have newer news unavailable even to a radio reporter, as indeed it did. Consider this current problem with the communications media as you read ahead.

Russian embassy in Washington learned of Todashev's shooting, it asked the U.S. government for the relevant documentation, including the autopsy report as well as information about the firearms used in the incident. The autopsy report has remained sealed, and an FBI spokesman said that no documents relating to the case would be provided to Russia until the FBI completes its investigation. The FBI's refusal to provide details on the shooting contrasts sharply with previous shootings involving its agents.” Yes. Stay attuned?

Consider as well this summary, also on Wikipedia, of reportage many Americans witnessed:

martyr in paradise and that he (Dzhokhar) expected to join him in paradise. Miller's sources said the wall the note was written on had multiple bullet holes in it from the shots that were fired into the boat by police. According to Miller during the interview he gave on the morning show, he said that the note will be a significant piece of evidence in any Dzhokar trial and that it is ‘certainly admissible,’ and paints a clear picture of the brothers' motive, ‘consistent with what he told investigators while he was in custody.’ Massachusetts police added that Dzhokhar wrote ‘Fuck America’ on the side panel of the boat.

If you think backwards, consider that the most obvious beneficiaries of this whole episode are the old American media, trying to best Twitter and other quicker disseminators with claims of more definitive interpretations, even if these are wrong or insufficient. Another beneficiary is the surveillance industry, which demonstrated that, if asked or needed, it can supply the media with pictures about nearly everyone nearly everywhere. This is new. In my neighborhood weekly newspaper in Queens, New York, routinely appear remarkably intimate photographs of alleged perpetrators of various crimes, apparently retrieved from cameras hidden from their view.

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